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Cop killers had 3 earlier talks with Vegas police

Ken Ritter Associated Press

Posted:
06/11/2014 01:29:58 PM EDT

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Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department Assistant Sheriff Kevin McMahill points to a surveillance video during a news conference on Wednesday, June 11, 2014 in Las Vegas. The video shows suspects Jerad Miller and Amanda Miller in a Wal-Mart during a shootout with police. The couple shot and killed two officers who were on their lunch break at a pizza parlor, on June 8, then went to a nearby Wal-Mart, where Amanda Miller killed a shopper who confronted her husband before police arrived. After a gun battle inside the store, Amanda Miller fatally shot her husband and then herself, police said. (AP Photo/John Locher)

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Las Vegas police said Wednesday that detectives talked on three occasions earlier this year with a married couple who killed two officers in a pizza shop and a good Samaritan in a nearby store, but they didn't express the extreme anti-authority views that apparently led to the rampage.

After shooting the patrol officers at the restaurant, the couple went to a nearby Wal-Mart, announced they were starting a revolution and shot a man with a gun who tried to stop them before they died by gunfire. Authorities are still investigating what sparked the carnage.

"This continues to be a massive ongoing investigation," said Assistant Clark County Sheriff Kevin McMahill, who corrected earlier reports that the woman, Amanda Miller, shot her husband, Jerad Miller, when they were cornered in the back of the store.

Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department Sheriff Doug Gillespie attends a news conference Wednesday, June 11, 2014 in Las Vegas. Police showed a short surveillance video of suspects Jerad Miller and Amanda Miller in a Wal-Mart during a shootout with police. The couple shot and killed two officers who were on their lunch break at a pizza parlor, on June 8, then went to a nearby Wal-Mart, where Amanda Miller killed a shopper who confronted her husband before police arrived. After a gun battle inside the store, Amanda Miller fatally shot her husband and then herself, police said. (AP Photo/John Locher) (John Locher/AP)

In fact, Jerad Miller was fatally wounded by at least one gunshot from Las Vegas officers as they closed in, McMahill said.

Department officials released a 23-second store security video clip showing the last moments of the Millers' lives, including narration by a store guard saying Amanda Miller appeared to shoot her husband as they lay on the floor while police closed in.

"In real time, the officers are receiving the information that the female shot the male," McMahill said.

Jerad Miller goes limp, and Amanda Miller then turns a handgun toward her head. The video goes dark as the narrator uses a police code, "405," to say she shot herself.

The Clark County coroner has ruled the two deaths a murder and a suicide.

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McMahill conceded the chain of events was "dramatically different" from previous accounts provided by police.

But he said local, state and federal investigators were still sorting through audio, video and witness accounts of the mid-day Sunday shootings and tracing the Millers' activities in Nevada and Indiana, where the couple lived before moving to Las Vegas in January.

Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department Assistant Sheriff Kevin McMahill, right, speaks during a news conference Wednesday, June 11, 2014 in Las Vegas. On the left of McMahill is Sheriff Dough Gillespie. Police showed a short surveillance video of suspects Jerad Miller and Amanda Miller in a Wal-Mart during a shootout with police. The couple shot and killed two officers who were on their lunch break at a pizza parlor, on June 8, then went to a nearby Wal-Mart, where Amanda Miller killed a shopper who confronted her husband before police arrived. After a gun battle inside the store, Amanda Miller fatally shot her husband and then herself, police said. (AP Photo/John Locher) (John Locher/AP)

Police also disclosed for the first time that one officer was wounded in the thigh by shrapnel in the Wal-Mart. The injury wasn't serious and wasn't discovered until the officer returned home that night, McMahill said.

McMahill and Sheriff Doug Gillespie said Las Vegas police interviewed Jared Miller in February about threats he made in a telephone call to Indiana motor vehicle officials about his driver's license being confiscated when he was pulled over near Hoover Dam, about 30 miles east of Las Vegas.

In a telephone call recording provided by the Indiana Bureau of Motor Vehicles, Jerad Miller complains about the insurance issue that led to the confiscation.

In the last seconds of the seven-minute call, he tells an operator, "If they come to arrest me for noncompliance or whatever, I'm just going to start shooting people."

McMahill said three veteran detectives closed their inquiry after determining the statement didn't constitute a credible threat, and that they had no probable cause for an arrest.

The Millers also provided written statements to police in April and May as witnesses to crimes involving other people at the Las Vegas apartment complex where they lived.

"We determined that nothing stood out," McMahill said. "There was no indication provided by the suspects of their anti-police feelings."